Recently, the 60 Second Marketer posted 25 email marketing tips for small to mid-sized businesses. There were so many, we couldn’t fit them all in one post. Here are an additional 15 tips, tricks, and secrets to help you out in your email marketing ventures:
- Don’t Forget the Preview Pane in Your Campaign: The preview pane should be filled with the unique selling point of your campaign, with your most intriguing benefit or your best offer. Unsubscription instructions, long introductory copy, and disclaimers should be moved down the page so that they’re not the first thing people see in the preview pane.
- Get Subscribers by Partnering with Other Websites: Turn to Web sites that people who might be interested in your newsletter are likely to visit and cooperate with the owners of these sites in some way that can profit both of you, such as exchanging sign-up forms.
- Make Sure Unsubscriptions are Effective Immediately: Avoid a spam-like impression by making sure unsubscriptions from your newsletters or email marketing lists go into effect immediately.
- Choose the Right Day of the Week to Send Newsletters: The best way to figure out when to send your email is to test your way into success by deploying on a variety of days and seeing which day is best for your specific audience. If your newsletter is business-oriented and read at work, you might start by sending it on Wednesday or Thursday. If your newsletter is primarily read at home and focuses on spare-time activities, try sending it on Saturday or Sunday. (For more information on this topic, read “What Are the Best Days of the Week to Send an Email Campaign?” on the 60 Second Marketer blog.)
- Send Newsletters on Time:People love consistency. If part of your email marketing involves sending a weekly newsletter, send it out at the same time each week.
- Successful Email Marketing is 1-to-1 Permission Marketing: Truly successful email marketing consists of personalized messages being sent to customers individually. Tailoring your communication to the needs of the individual customer is only possible if you know a lot about them. You can learn about your subscribers by analyzing the data in the sign-up form or by sending them a survey after they sign up.
- Test the Layout of Your Newsletter with Email Clients: Make sure your email marketing message looks good not only in your email program but in your recipient’s, too. You can do this by signing up for AOL, Google, HotMail and other free services, then testing the look-and-feel by sending yourself an email to your AOL, Google and/or HotMail accounts.
- Decide whether to use Opt-In or Double Opt-In: Email addresses on an opt-in list are not confirmed. On a double opt-in list, all email addresses must be confirmed by the user before they are added. A request for confirmation is sent to the submitted address, and the address owner must take some action to confirm that. At the 60 Second Marketer, we’ve found that a double opt-in list ensures a very high degree of engagement with our readers and a very low complaint rate.
- How to Get the Names of Anonymous Subscribers: Send a letter to those who have signed up for your newsletter but haven’t submitted their name periodically and tell them you’d love to greet them with their name instead of the stale “Dear Subscriber.” Chances are lots of them will be more than willing to reveal their name.
- Know Your Competition: Sign up for your competitors’ emails. It will give you insight into what types of emails they send and what they are offering to their subscribers. This can help you with promotional ideas as well as improvements to your own email campaigns.
- Monitor Reply-to Addresses: The “reply-to” address for your email campaigns should be closely monitored by a member of your team. It is important that email remain a two-way street, and by having a valid reply-to address that is monitored and acted upon, your customers will know you are listening to them. Don’t make the mistake of allowing the replies to pile up in your inbox and never looking at them.
- Remind the User how they Signed-up: People register for email subscriptions at different sources (store, point of purchase, co-registration, etc.). As a result, they may not always remember what they did to start receiving communications from your brand. By personalizing the copy based on the registration source, you can provide them with a gentle reminder of where they signed up, which can eliminate any confusion that might cause them to hit the unsubscribe link.
- Do Not Include Attachments in Your Emails: Some people will not open an email with an attachment for fear of getting a computer virus, so it is best not to include any. If want to share an image or coupon with your subscribers, it is more effective to incorporate it within the body of the email.
- Don’t Say it All in One Message: If you have a lot to tell the subscriber, say it over a series of communications. The user is more likely to retain information given in small batches than a lengthy email that requires them to “page-down” through multiple paragraphs. A well-integrated welcome series works wonders.
- Include a Sign-Up Banner at the Bottom of Your Blog Posts: See the e-newsletter sign-up banner at the bottom of this blog post? Steal the idea. Seriously, take the idea and incorporate it into your own blog posts. We’re all in this together, aren’t we?
Want more tips on Email Marketing? Visit About.com for more information.
About the Author: Brittney Leigh Smith is a marketing analyst for the 60 Second Marketer.